RWS-SB2001August 29, 2001Comments Off on The Progress of Culture by Even Keith Eppich Anthropology, Southern Methodist University

Anthropology and the tools of thought Science and culture possess a synergistic relationship. While the concerns of the larger society are addressed through a scientific methodology, science itself makes innovations and discoveries that profoundly alter the larger society that spawns it. The creation of knowledge exists as complex phenomena, simultaneously social and scientific. Darwin might have profoundly altered […]

It is difficult for a textbook/reader entitled A World of Ideas to do justice to its title and live up to its implications. How many volumes, one may wonder, would such a reader need to consist to cover a “world of ideas”? It is significant that Lee A. Jacobus did not entitle this book The World of Ideas and thus, implicitly, […]

RWS-SB2001August 10, 2001Comments Off on Making Meaning and Value for Edison’s Light and Power in the Human World by Charles Bazerman, UC Santa Barbara

Incandescent light is more than a light bulb. It requires complex systems of related technologies—switches, circuit breakers, meters, and power lines; transformers, power stations, and generators. It also requires multiple systems of human cooperation, action and meaning–power companies, government regulators, consumers, manufacturers of equipment, bill collectors, accountants, rate payers, electric sign designers and people reading by […]

I would like to share with my fellow writing instructors a game I created for my first semester of teaching RWS 100. The game was inspired by the recent game show craze on television and is a mix of “Jeopardy,” the Win Ben Stein’s Money show on Comedy Central, and “Family Feud.” Its purpose is […]

RWS-SB2001August 1, 2001Comments Off on Cyberethics: Back to the Future by Dr. Jane Robinett, San Diego State University

Computers have reshaped our world and our lives in ways we have not anticipated. They have redefined not only the way in which work is done in offices, schools and manufacturing complexes, but also the nature of work itself. They have shown us that political boundaries are indefensible against invasions of ideas. The steady transborder […]